Deception
by Kuro-Ookami
Summary: An apparent mutant terrorist attack leads to all out chaos in America. The Xmen defend themselves from attacks from Sentinels and the army. A strange group of human rebels come to their aid. Things are not as they seem. Fairly violent. Oo


Disclaimer: I do not own the X-men, Marvel does.

This is just a nifty little idea I had a while ago. Oo. Not sure what if the end product is going to be good, or anything.

Chapter One: The Earth Was Blue, but There was no God.

Sunday morning.

The population of the Xavier institute all woke up at different times. Some early, some late. On this particular sunday, the entire world was up early.

"Does the president know about this?"

Every news channel was the same. Grainy images of what looked like soldiers firing into a military bunker. All of the sudden, a man stepped out of the bunker and sent a ball of flame at the soldier, killing them. The images shot to still photos taken by internal cameras. The man looked at the security camera filming this, and torched it too.

"We come to you live. The images you see now are of standoff at a military base in North Dakota. The cameras inside the secured sector are still online. At this point, it is uncertain whether or not the fighting inside is still active, or if the mutants have captured the base."

All of the students stared at the screen, in pure shock. What the hell was happening? Who was the mutant?

What would happen to THEM?

The screen changed. Inside the base, a female mutant raised her hands at a group of scientists. One scientist floated in the air for a moment before his neck snapped The others fell silently to the ground, a detailed image showing a trail of blood coming from their ears.

"The attack is being caused by a currently unknown mutant group..."

And explosion in the building, choppers flying over head lowered a camera, spotting the wreckage. In the flames, an impossibly large man stood up, roaring into the sky. Over the wind, the cry could be heard: "FREEDOM!"

"Jesus christ...!" The news anchor said in pure shock. "We've been told that the mutants have captured the base. North Dakota is commonly known as the state where most of America's nuclear arsenal is kept, which is probably why the mutants chose to attack this particular base..."

The anchor pushed a finger to his ear. The mutants stared intently at the screen. Kitty got up to leave the room, but Logan quickly grabbed her hand.

"You can't leave." He said, quietly. "We need to know what the hell's happenin', all of us."

She looked at him, fear and anxiety in her eyes, and nodded slowly.

"The mutants are giving their warning. This broadcast IS live, from the apparent leader of the group."

The camera view changed quickly to what looked like a hangar. The background was dominated by what looked like a massive pair of legs, standing straight up. There were cases in the background, also, that apparently held the nukes.

Four people walked on screen. One stepped forward. A man with long brown hair, wearing a loose trenchcoat over what looked like a grey vest, matching pants, and a white dress shirt. He was the same man that had thrown the fire at the soldiers and cameras.

The girl who killed the scientists was there, too, as well as the massive man. The last member walked with a cane, and looked like he had one foot in the grave.

Professor Xavier gripped his wheelchair's armrests, pursing his lips.

"Now that we have your attention..." The leader said. He lifted his arm up slowly, the sleeve of his trenchcoat falling open slightly as it did so. He tapped his chest. "I am Zodiac." He motioned to his comrades. "We are red flag."

"Behind us, you can see The Sentinel. The Sentinel is America's plan to "Take care" of mutants. A giant, sentient robot capable of destroying entire cities, and programmed to hunt my kind..."

He laughed.

"Another little feature of the Sentinel is the ability to launch nuclear weapons." He said. "Which, we're about to demonstrate."

The roof of the hangar creaked open, causing the man to have to shout over the noise.

"There's already a counterattack planned here. Wipe this base off the face of the earth, and make an example out of us. Well! We're taking the whole goddamned country with us!"

He roared with laughter. "The whole WORLD with us!"

The sentinel slowly knelt down onto one knee. It looked almost like Atlas holding up the world.

"In a few moments, Washington DC is going to be rubble. In a few moments, the whole world will change. In a few moments, the entire country is going back to the fucking stone age!"

The psychic girl cracked her neck.

Sirens could be heard all throughout the city. A loud whirring came from the Sentinel. Zodiac turned, looking back at the sentinel as a nuclear missile was fired from the back of the sentinel.

Everyone in the institute took note; there was no fire coming from the missile. Nothing was being burned.

The camera footage died a second later.

It went back to the anchor, who was sweating bullets and obviously had nothing to say. "Ladies and gentlemen, if you have family in the Washington DC area, I advise that you try to contact them while you still can. We are looking for information on this "Sentinel" project. But right now, just pray for those in Washington..."

He tapped his headset again.

"We have word that the Mobile Missile Defense systems see no missile closing in on DC. I repeat, there is no missile headed to DC. Nothing is showing up on the radar."

Logan growled.

"What the hell is happening?" Scott asked.

The camera showed footage from ground crews in Washington. Sirens everywhere, cars fleeing the city, and jets roaring over head.

"Still nothing on radar..." The anchor said.

"Jesus christ..." Beast muttered. "They can't detect it because it isn't burning FUEL!"

Everyone looked over.

"It had to have been fired some other way... Magnets, or something." He said. "They can't see it unless it's burning, and they can't shoot down what they can't see."

The camera zoomed in on a spot in the sky. A small black dot was seen against the blue screen. "The hell is that!"

It was coming in faster and faster, and the camera man began to run.

There was pure silence followed by an incredible blast. The screen went pure white before everything went black.

Xavier shut his eyes tightly.

The worst hadn't even come, yet.

In the next three months, the entire country fell apart. Mass produced sentinels hunted down Mutants, killing or capturing them for what had happened that day. Apparently, shortly after the DC attack, NORAD had leveled the base in North Dakota, destroying a good chunk of their nuclear arsenal.

It was common sight to see soldiers patrolling the streets, and to hear gunfire at any time throughout the day. Curfews were enforced with a degree of sadism, and nobody felt safe.

It wasn't just the army that was tearing things up around the country. Several groups of "Rebels" had taken up arms, and PMC groups were fighting for those who paid the most, the grand prize being control. Every day, the death toll kept climbing, and innocent people were dying in prison camps.

The Xavier Institute had managed to hold off attacks. The students lived in the underground, the area below the actual institute, and the X-men spent their time defending the students, and occassionally trying some rescues.

Things went from bad to worse, and there was no end in sight.

Cities were battlefields, and it wasn't strange to see giant robots mowing down a group of soldiers in the streets.

Bayville, which looked like your average suburb, looked a little more similar to Iraq every passing day. The mutants were growing tired, and most wished that things were as "Simple" as they once were, when they were just hated instead of hunted and murdered or captured.

The earth was blue, but there was no god. 


End file.
